GUN CONTROL....is it a good thing ( Archived) (888)

so u are still a life

it stems from ones god given right to protect ones self and in this country their right to freedom. I find it odd that one of the foundations that has made this country so great and free is something people would dare change. Seems like everyone wants to immigrate here for a reason. Gun control has failed all over the world, I would rather face a man with a gun then a man with a bomb any day. regardless of guns people will find a way to kill one another I am just thankful I have the right as an American to protect myself and my love ones.

I would agree with you here but we are changing laws in many states to address this , it takes time , it will not change over night , we as Americans do see our faults and do try to correct the wrongs that are made , we are not always right ,but I for one do do the best I can, but I am not going to give up my firearms to anyone , and I will support the NRA and our way of life

I stand corrected ,but my point i think was made

I found a good article, has anyone read this, it's pretty interesting.

Ten Myths About Gun Control

By Glen Otero, PhD

Myth 1: The proliferation of guns in this country is responsible for an increase in the violent crime rate.

This is arguably the most pervasive untruth associated with firearms. It is true that there is a great deal of gun-related violent crime in this country, including homicide, robbery and assault. Additionally, the proliferation of firearms in this country has been steadily increasing. These two facts have led many to believe that the increase in guns in this country is responsible for the increase in violent crime. However, decades of data collecting and analysis reveal that nothing about a guns/crime relationship is self-evident.

In 1978 the National Institute of Justice initiated a study to examine the relationship between firearms and violence. Upon reviewing the criminological research to date, the authors of the study concluded that there were no strong causal connections between private gun ownership and the crime rate. Furthermore, they added that there was no good evidence supporting the idea that homicide occurs just because guns are readily available, or its corollary, that many homicides would not occur were guns less available.

Since 1978, criminological studies examining the relationship between violent crime and private gun ownership have typically found no significant positive effect of gun ownership on the violent crime rate. Some studies actually find a negative relationship. In other words, areas with high gun ownership experienced less crime than comparable areas with lower firearm ownership. Studies that draw a causal inference from a gun/homicide correlation usually fail to take into account the possible reverse relationship. That is, these studies do not address the possibility that high crime rates may have stimulated higher gun ownership, and not just the reverse.

The national homicide, gun homicide, robbery and gun robbery rates, as well as the percentage of guns involved in aggravated assault, have not significantly increased from what they were in 1974. However, the number of firearms in this country increased 75 percent between 1974-1994, for a total of nearly 236 million guns. While the number of guns steadily increased in this country between 1974-1994, half of that time the homicide and robbery rates were decreasing, the other half they were increasing, resulting in no net change. The proliferation of firearms during this period cannot be held responsible for an increase in the violent crime rate when in fact there has been no such increase. Furthermore, since 1994, the homicide rate has continued to drop, hitting a low in 1996 not seen since 1969.

A simple calculation demonstrates that a very small fraction of the existing guns are actually involved in any crime. The criminologist Gary Kleck estimated the percentage of circulating guns actually involved in a crime for 1993. Let us assume, as he did, that each of the 1,134,102 fatal and nonfatal gun-related incidents in 1993 were committed with a different gun. This is a conservative assumption that undoubtedly overestimates the actual number of guns involved in violent crime. This number, divided by 228,660,966, the number of guns in circulation that year, means that less than 0.5 percent of all guns were used in a crime. Adjusting the calculations to accommodate crimes involving only handguns yields a little over 1 percent of the circulating handguns in 1993 being involved in a crime. Further analysis by Kleck estimates that less than 1 percent of all guns will ever be used in a crime. Approximately 99 percent of all guns are never involved in any crime.

Myth 2: The proliferation of gun ownership in this country is responsible for an alarming increase in fatal gun accidents involving children.

In 1995, Robert Walker, a lobbyist for Handgun Control Inc., claimed that 1,400 children are killed as a result of fatal gun accidents each year. But that shocking claim is contradicted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Safety Council (NSC). According to these agencies, 181 children 0-14 years of age were victims of fatal gun accidents in 1995. Since 1970, the first year data is available from the NSC and the NCHS, fatal gun accidents involving children under fifteen have not even approximated one half the number Walker claimed.

Statistics quoted as representative of gun accidents involving preadolescents (children under fourteen) are often inflated by including adolescent and young adult incidents as well. This is a serious error since adolescents and young adults are the highest risk categories for firearm accidents. Lumping together children and adults seriously distorts the incidents attributed to preadolescent children and infants. After properly separating children from adults, one finds that while the number of guns increased 75 percent between 1974 and 1994, the number of fatal gun accidents involving children ages 0-14 years decreased 65 percent over the same period.

Understandably, fatal gun accidents involving children tend to generate heavy publicity. This disproportionate press coverage often implies that the majority of accidental deaths of children is caused by firearms. In reality however, between 1993-1996, fatal gun accidents accounted for less than 4 percent of all the accidental deaths involving children under fifteen. Furthermore, firearm accidents involving children under age 10 constituted just over 1 percent of accidental children deaths in this age group from 1993-1995.

To read the rest of the myths.